Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Steaming Teabags

by digby

Via Kos, I see that the Council of Conservative Citizens (the heir to the White Citizens Councils) is chiding their brothers in the tea party for failing to stand up tall for their shared supremacist ideals. It seems like the average white racist just can't get a break any more.

The article linked above features a sick blog post by a radio talk show host and sick piece of work, named James Edwards:

His website, the Political Cesspool, declares as its motto: "Conservatism is dead. Liberalism has no answers. What comes next? The rise of ethnopolitics."

After the NAACP passed a recent resolution condemning the Tea Party as a bunch of bigots, the ragtag band of would-be American revolutionaries launched into denials. That's because they're week-kneed, lily-livered racists whose instinct is to "bend over and grab their ankles", wrote Edwards, who suggested they connect with their inner-cackling villains.

Click over to read the swill, if you care to.

What's more interesting to me is this:

Last January, a state chapter of the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC) set up shop at a Tea Party rally in Invernness, Citrus County. Senate candidate and Tea-Party darling Marco Rubio headlined the event, while the CCC handed out pamphlets and swag.

They wrote a proud blog entry about it: "Florida CofCC works crowd at TEA party." The Anti-Defamation League warned of the group's attendance a day ahead of time.

If I had to guess, that part of what the NAACP was talking about when they asked the tea party to condemn the racial elements in its midst.

Most Americans learned of the CCC in late 1998, when a scandal erupted over prominent Southern politicians' ties to the brazenly racist group. After it was revealed that former Congressman Bob Barr (R-Ga.) gave the keynote speech at the CCC's 1998 national convention and that then-Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) had spoken to the group five times, both claimed they knew nothing about the CCC. However, an Intelligence Report investigation, publicized by national television and newspaper reports, made clear what the CCC really was: a hate group that routinely denigrated blacks as "genetically inferior," complained about "Jewish power brokers," called homosexuals "perverted sodomites," accused immigrants of turning America into a "slimy brown mass of glop," and named Lester Maddox, the now-deceased, ax handle-wielding, arch-segregationist former governor of Georgia, "Patriot of the Century."

As evidence of widespread association between Southern GOP officeholders and the CCC mounted, Republican National Committee Chairman Jim Nicholson took the unusual step in 1998 of asking party members to resign from the group because of its racist views. A resolution moved through the U.S. Congress "condemning the racism and bigotry espoused by the Council of Conservative Citizens," although it ultimately failed. (Congress had earlier condemned the black supremacist Nation of Islam in a similar manner, but failed to do the same with the CCC. Republican Party leaders, likely embarrassed by Lott's very public connection to the CCC, managed to defeat the censure effort.)

But six years later, many Southern lawmakers were still pandering to and meeting with the CCC — and still pleading ignorance. According to a 2004 Intelligence Report review of the Citizens Informer, no fewer than 38 federal, state and local elected officials had attended CCC events between 2000 and 2004, most of them giving speeches to local chapters of the hate group.

The Tea Party, representing as it does the hard core right wing of the Republican Party, quite logically features a large contingent of racists. Some of us have been aware of them for years, but now that the rock they had been hiding under was turned over when Bush and Rove successfully strip mined the GOP and they are scurrying around running into each other, it's hard to avoid them.

BTW: take a look at the comments. Granted, they don't mean anything in themselves, but they are a little snapshot of this issue. Here's one skirmish:

The Quadfather says:

The Tea Party movement is not in itself a racist movement. It's goals have nothing to do with race. If there are few minorities at these events, it merely reflects what little respect for our constitution that members of the other races have. The Tea Party is a constitutional movement. The Constitution is a white man's creation, and it nust be defended by white men and women because nobody else will.

Bob Fairlane says:

The Tea Party is a tax protest grass roots movement. It is not a party like The Libertarian Party.

And why does it surprise you that white Americans want lower taxes, prosecution of pork spenders, and an end to the reign of Obama (the Chicago Gangster who repeatedly wastes money, supports huge government power grabs, affronts whites and supports black-power media personalities and organizations).

crusader88 says:

I partly agree with the CCC. Though racism proper denotes an abhorrence of people because of their race which is largely absent from the Tea Party movement (and indeed in the CCC, if you follow their website), white people in the Tea Party are rightly sticking up for their own interests and resisting the genocidal depredations of the multiculturalists. To be sure, most Tea Partiers believe colorblindness is the ideal; I believe, however, that God has a place for all races in his divine plan. The white race is under an unprecedented threat of enslavement or demographic extinction, and rightly merits a defense by those of its number who appreciate its beauty and good qualities and want it to persist.

To the earlier question on the CCCs thoughts on Catholics, they have nothing against members of the Church founded by Jesus Christ, but are obviously upset with the USCCB and other clergy for mishandling the immigration issue to the point of effectually denying our Nation's sovereignty.

Claudia says:

Don't really care for the Tea Party, they're pretty much made up of older wealthy citizens(mostly White) who don't want to pay taxes and want "god" in everything. Just reading some comments here pretty much prove that this group does have some bigots in their organization. But in the end I really don't care, even if this group was racist free there still a bunch of idiots who I could never relate too or ever associate with, they don't care about people like me or like my father who fought for this fuckin country and has been laid off since 2007 and looks for a job constantly but is considered "lazy" by these elitists Republicans. Fuck'em.

John Thomas says:

Claudia, we don't mind paying taxes, we're just sick and tired of YOU NOT PAYING TAXES. One half of this country has to pay taxes, the other half gets a check in the mail from the IRS every year. It's time for you to pay your fair share and quit stealing half of OUR EARNED money to pay for your lazy welfare grubbing @sses. The big 0's "Base" is made up of criminals, thieves, looters and the like. Speaking of "Elitists", maybe you should take a look at the sorry bunch of liberals you've elected. Fuck you Claudia.